For several years, open wire type shelving has been available. Horizontal shelves of this type have traditionally been supported along their lateral surfaces, such as along the back edge, both side edges and occasionally at intervals along the front edge. Exemplary structures are set forth in Stempel, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,598,064 and 3,765,634.
Shelving systems have also been mounted to a wall by means of vertical wall supports in which removable brackets fit and serve to support shelving. Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,092,047 and 3,353,684. Multiple rack shelves are also known where a plurality of different types of shelves are combined together into a system, again supported most usually by means of vertical support rods themselves fixed to the wall. Exemplary of such a system is Stroh, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,002, Karnes, U.S. Pat. No. 1,954,935, and Shell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,085,693. In Shell, in order to make an angled or downwardly inclined shelf, Shell employed a shelf tilting device comprised of a stamped piece of sheet metal having a generally T-shaped body with one portion adapted to fit within an associated upright support member and another portion provided with a slot to receive one of the support fingers of the bracket.
Knupp, U.S. Pat. No. 1,949,017, discloses an inclined, wall mounted shoe display rack comprised of an inclined frame, the upper portion of which being secured to the wall by an eye and screw, while the lower portion acts as a brace movably mounted to the lower or outer end of the inclined frame. The brace is angled approximately 45 degrees back toward the wall from the inclined frame and is held in place and not permitted to pivot beyond the 45.degree. by arms provided at the sides of the lower end of the inclined frame.
Derman, U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,827, also discloses inclined shelving which is held in place by means of a support block secured to the inner surface of side supporting rails to which the inclined shelf is pivotally attached.
However, none of these devices allow an inclined shelf to be supported anywhere along its length. Rather, support is provided only where the vertical shelf supports are fixed to the wall.
Additionally, supports for shelves close to the floor, as those used for shoe racks, which depend from the front edge are in the way and can be kicked. Further, such legs impede access to the area beneath the shelf and can be hit by one's shoes when walking up to the shelf or when moving laterally along the length of the shelf system.